


Play it by Ear

by arimabat



Series: deterministic chaos [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers (2012), Canon Divergence - Thor (2011), Canon-Typical Levels of Science Bullshitting, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Loki isn't a villain, POV Heimdall, POV Loki (Marvel), POV Maria Hill, POV Natasha Romanov, POV Nebula, a big messy fic, but he's not exactly a hero either
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-07-28 16:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16245305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arimabat/pseuds/arimabat
Summary: When Nebula arrives on Earth to take the Tesseract back to her father, SHIELD has to assemble an unusual team to prevent disaster.





	1. 1.1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to [BoaE](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14953608/chapters/34651215) \- a Loki-centric Thor (2011) AU - but reading that one is entirely optional as any divergences from canon are explained in the text proper.
> 
> The basic premise is ‘The Avengers (2012), but if Loki had never ended up with Thanos and instead had chilled on Earth for two years’ and that’s really all you need to be good to go.

“What the -“

The darkened interior of the base was lit up by the pale blue light, expanding outwards from a singular point to fill every nook and cranny as if determined to reveal everything. Everything, including the woman who had appeared.

And the light surged back towards her in a single glistening rush, illuminating her skin so it shone an even more vibrant blue. She opened her eyes to look out at the Terrans, isolated, terrified, pointing their primitive weapons at her.

Clasping tightly at the sceptre, her face was lit up by its own glow, eerily reminiscent of the object that had brought her there. Armed with a weapon whose power the Terrans could not begin to comprehend, what could they do but kneel?

She was crouching, on an elevated platform of some sort. Through the gradually lifting smoke she could make out her surroundings. The Tesseract was not ten feet away.

“Put down the spear!” one of the Terrans called.

She turned sharply to him, tilting her head in a rapid jerk to one side as she assessed him. One eye stared back with the steely resolve of a soldier. Her head turned again in quick, abrupt motions, taking in the Terrans one by one. Most were visibly terrified. Some were in what was unmistakably military gear, others were dressed in ways more befitting people of science. She noticed the man closest to her, mostly unremarkable but with a calmness and confidence unusual given the circumstances. He was pointing his weapon right at her. It would be of little use.

“Put it down, now!” the same man repeated.

This should be easy.

She launched herself in the air, using the sceptre to fire a blast where most of her foes stood as she went straight for the Tesseract. Metal rained down at her as the Terrans defended themselves, but she deflected and dodged them with relative ease, spinning around in midair and letting off another blast even before she hit the ground. She landed right in front of the Tesseract and picked it up with her bare hand, the considerable power of the cube scalding even to her as what remained of her skin fizzed at the touch. But it was hardly a problem. So she faced the Terrans, now with sceptre in one hand and Tesseract in the other, them scattered with several lying unconscious or worse on the ground, the others seemingly waiting to see what her next move would be.

It was an ominous silence. The Tesseract hissed. She could feel a ripple of energy behind her, pulsating and shifting as if desperate to _act_. The power of her target had made this entire place unstable - she could guess that much. It would not do to stick around.

“Who are you?” asked the man who had spoken before, still standing and not visibly shaking. His voice was gruff, with the confidence of a man in command.

“I am Nebula,” she said, her raspy voice ringing out loud in the silence. “And I will take what I came for.”

“What do you want the cube for?”

“It is none of your concern,” she said. The corner of her mouth slid up, stretching her lips taught. “Let me leave and you will come to no harm. In a few days, I shall be gone from your world.”

Her father had been very precise in his instructions. Terra’s cleansing could wait - for now, the risk of aggravating Asgard was too considerable. They were currently unlikely to protect their erstwhile allies, but the less attention she attracted, the better. His powers could conceal her from their watcher, but no more than that. If she could not acquire the Tesseract, she was on her own.

“You have something that belongs to us.”

She smirked at the Terran’s insolence. “This?” she said, holding up the cube as vapours of thin smoke drifted up from where it touched her skin. “This power does not belong to you, worm, and it never will. You do not stand a chance against me. But I know how to show mercy and that is what I am offering you. This is your last opportunity to stand down.”

“That’s not an option.”

She bared her teeth. “So be it.”

The sceptre let out a new blast in the man’s direction that he wasn’t quite able to dodge. Turned to the side, it streaked across his chest and he collapsed. She started moving, almost crashing into one of the unarmed Terrans in the process.

But the man who had been closest to her when she arrived stepped into her line of sight. He had discarded his other weapon and was now holding what looked at like a massive blaster. She twisted around, ready to attack. But he had caught her by surprise, and he fired at her. A single bright orange beam of energy hit her in the waist and she half-keeled over with a gasp.

Her vision blurred as suddenly everything went wrong. There were more Terrans entering the room and her mind started working at a frantic pace. Even as she felt her body bending over in pain and shock a million thoughts flashed through her mind.

She needed to get out of here.

They had weapons that could hurt her.

She needed more information.

Time had slowed down by a ridiculous amount as she felt her grasp loosening on the slippery Tesseract. But even with this knowledge, she could not order her muscles to act differently. Even as she watched it fall and roll over once, twice, so that she could not immediately pick it up again, she knew that she had to use the sceptre rather more creatively and jabbed it forward at her attacker’s heart. By the time it impacted, she was kneeling on the floor and holding it up, still too fast for his Terran reflexes even in her weakened state. With all the energy she had, she asserted her will over him. The swirling blue of the sceptre shone a little brighter as it passed into the man and he let the weapon fall, his eyes turn black. There was an instant of resistance, but the man yielded. She could _feel_ her connection to him and even with everything else going on, it disconcerted her.

But as he stood straight and glassy-eyed, she realised with a small thrill that he was _hers_.

“We need to get out of here,” she said, voice even more coarse than usual, raising herself with considerable effort and pain. She spun around to use the sceptre on another approaching Terran who had gotten far too close.

He nodded and took out a gun, shooting at another man who had come close. “The base is close to blowing up. We need to go.”

The Tesseract - _where_ was it? She scanned the floor for where it should have rolled, but with mingled fear and frustration she realised it was nowhere to be seen. But her gaze alighted on the scientist, cowering on the floor next to his monitors. If she was going to do this…

She stumbled over to him and yanked him up by the collar, her body taking the toll more than it had any right to, and once again used the sceptre. As she watched the fight go out of his eyes and felt another connection be established, she sensed the truth of the man’s words. They _really_ needed to go.

But the Tesseract…

“The energy levels are reaching critical levels,” said her new servant. “We have minutes at most. Less, probably.”

“Come on!” said the first man even as her eyes scoured the surroundings. Someone must have moved incredibly quickly for it to just _disappear_ … Where had they gone? But the only person left alive was their commander who was clearly unconscious - the others speedily evacuating.

She followed her new servant, knowing that she couldn’t succeed if she died.

“There’s a vehicle just ahead,” he said, looking with concern at her injury. _It’s your fault_ , she wanted to spit, but she knew there was little point. A woman was running in their direction.

“Coulson? Where’s Fury?” she asked, gun held aloft as her worried gaze took in the scene.

“Fury’s dead,” said the man as he continued walking with the other two. “We need to get out.”

“Fury’s… No!” she exclaimed, panic etched across her features before she frowned as she looked at Nebula, taking in her alien features and blue skin. “Who the hell is that?” A hand flew to her earpiece. “I need to get to -“ She cut herself off suddenly as her eyes flew up to the man.

He raised his gun and fired at her but she was too fast, rolling out of sight. They had reached their vehicle and Nebula got in where instructed, almost fainting immediately as the pain threatened to overwhelm her. What _had_ that man used? She cast a worried look out of the window back at the Terran woman, but she had started running in the opposite direction _towards_ the epicentre of the coming explosion.

“Drive,” she muttered, far too faint and _weak_.

They did so and she sunk back even as she could hear the roar of metal around her, gathering up her strength with all the resolve she could muster. She was going to need it to get through this alive.

* * *

It was on the morning news. Thousands of miles away, across an ocean, yet still important enough to be reported. Everyone paid close attention to SHIELD these days. Always best to keep an eye on what the Americans were doing.

Loki saw it too. He saw it in a train station, having just picked up a small brown bag from the nearest bakery. He saw it when he passed one of the screens showing the daily news, on his way out to where the crisp autumn sunlight waited. It was a bright day outside, the grey clouds still held at bay for a little longer before they engulfed the city entirely. The sunlight shone through the high glass ceiling, illuminating the grime and dirt of the station below. Loki sniffed involuntarily even as his eyes quickly scanned over the news, still not used to the never-easing stench.

An incident in New Mexico. Authorities had refused to comment. It had nothing to do with him.

Loki had better things to worry about.

* * *

Maria let herself in.

“Sir, I’m afraid my protocols have been overridden.”

“… the hell?” muttered a familiar voice, then came face to face with her. “Think I see the security breach.”

He had gotten over his surprise by the time he stepped up to meet her.

“Agent Hill!” said Stark, cheery and far too awake for Maria’s throbbing head. But she had to focus, of course. This _mattered_ , perhaps more than anything else right now.

“Mr Stark,” she said, shaking his hand and making sure to be as briskly professional as she could. “I hope I’m not intruding.”

“No intrusion,” said Potts, coming to meet her with a smile. “Pepper Potts.”

“Maria Hill,” said Maria, shaking her hand in turn.

“Actually, it is an intrusion,” said Stark. “How did you even get in?”

“That’s unimportant. We need to talk.”

“It’s really not - Jarvis, how did she get in?”

“That would be the overridden protocols, sir.”

A scowl. “Yes. Yes, I got that. But, Agent Hill, I’m sure you can address your request to the assistant -“

“Tony!”

“- in the morning. We’re celebrating now. So if you wouldn’t mind -“

“I do mind,” said Maria, finding her patience steadily slipping. She handed him the laptop she’d had tucked under her arm. “We need you to take a look at this.”

Stark looked at the laptop sceptically. “I don’t like being handed things.”

Maria’s mouth was becoming an ever thinner line but she forced the corners to go up as she placed the laptop on the nearest table, a little too hard. “Fury informed you that you were a consultant for the Avengers Initiative. Congratulations, you just got your first assignment.”

Potts clapped her hands lightly together, smiling widely at Stark. “Looks like you have a busy night ahead.”

“No, I don’t,” said Stark with his usual petulance, but even as he did he looked at Maria askance like he had figured out something was off. “Where’s Fury, anyway? Wasn’t Agent Coulson meant to be my designated contact?”

Maria’s heart lurched painfully. “Fury’s incapacitated,” she said shortly. “And Coulson’s compromised.” She folded her arms and gave Potts a significant look. “This is all strictly confidential.”

“Of course…” said Potts, looking genuinely shocked. “What… happened?”

Part of her wanted to tell Potts to leave, part of her was thinking how it wouldn’t help to piss off Stark. Best let Potts make that decision for herself. “A SHIELD facility was attacked by an alien with some form of mind-controlling weapon. She tried to get at something that belonged to SHIELD and in the process levelled the whole building, injured Fury and took over the minds of several of our best people. Including Coulson.” She looked at Potts. “I hope you now understand the urgency of the situation…?”

“Of course,” said Potts. “I’m leaving.”

“Hey, hey,” said Stark in protestation. He turned to Maria. “One moment.”

They walked off several feet and spoke shortly. Maria didn’t watch them, instead checking her communicator. Seven alerts in the few minutes she’d been here.

Should she really be handling this herself?

No, it was on route anyway. And there weren’t many people she’d trust with this. One of them was…

 _Focus_.

“I’m off now,” said Potts, having approached again. “Lovely meeting you, Agent Hill.”

“Likewise,” said Maria, her smile weaker than it should be.

She left, leaving Maria alone with Stark.

“I thought the Avengers Initiative was dead,” he said.

“I revived it,” said Maria. “Half an hour ago. As of right now, I am the acting director of SHIELD.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks. Check the laptop.”

Stark did so, looking at several screens that depicted the extent of the Avengers Initiative. “What are we dealing with?”

“We have to protect _that_ ,” she said, pointing at the cube. “And find _her,”_ she added, pointing at Nebula. “Plus the mind-controlling weapon she has.”

“And what exactly is this cube?”

“Something we found in the ice when we got out Steve Rogers.”

“You’ve been studying it.”

Not a question, but Maria nodded anyway. “And now it’s a portal. To somewhere far away and clearly dangerous. Whatever happened to it, we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“What makes you think I’m your guy?”

“Because I’m making a call to not wait for things to get worse,” she said, folding her arms. “I’m setting up a trap because I think our hostile might be impatient and so am I. And I want you to figure out how to hide the Tesseract and make a signal that could trick someone who has studied it extensively. Preferably within the next ten hours.”

Stark raised his eyebrows. “Want me to solve world poverty while I’m at it?”

“I wouldn’t say no to that, but I’m afraid the Tesseract will have to take priority.”

“How do you even know that it’s possible?”

Maria tilted her head to one side. “Oh dear. Have we finally found a challenge impossible for the great Tony Stark?”

Stark bristled. “Hilarious, director. I’m being serious, though. Ten hours is a little short, even for me. This isn’t really my field either.”

“We’re getting someone else in. Bruce Banner.”Her gaze flickered over to one of the screen.

Stark did likewise. “He seems nice,” he said as they both looked at footage of the Hulk.

“Doctor Banner is an expert on gamma radiation. We’re picking him up right now, but… we’d prefer it if we didn’t need him. I doubt he’ll have time to figure something out.”

“Because of your trap.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve set this up awfully quickly, haven’t you?”

Maria shrugged. “Our enemy is still disorientated. If she’s going to slip up, it’ll be now. It’d help if you manage to create a decoy Tesseract. We do have a backup plan, it’s just… a little riskier. And you’ll need to suit up.”

“So much for consultant.”

“Call me desperate.”

“Uh huh. So forgive me for asking the obvious question, but I kind of feel like you should be consulting our new alien friends on this.”

Maria’s stomach did a flip. Better do this sooner rather than later. “You mean Asgard.”

“Or Jotunheim. Who exactly are our friends these days anyway?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? “We have reason to believe Asgard might be less than eager to offer their assistance at the present moment.”

“Because you pissed them off?” He gave her a knowing smile. “Not just that, is it? Your cube - what’s its name?” He peered at the screen. “The Tesseract? You think it might be linked to Asgard. You didn’t tell them, now you don’t think you can ask for help.”

Maria didn’t answer, which was answer enough.

“So we’re on our own.”

“Not quite, as a matter of fact,” said Maria. She tapped the screen, drawing Stark’s attention to a man with a thin face and brushed back black hair in high-collared green and gold armour, standing in the middle of the rubble and ruin of Tønsberg with a half-snarl on his face. “Just in case our little ambush doesn’t work, we do need other people who might be able to help. Even if it does, actually.”

“So that’d be Loki. The fugitive.” Stark folded his arms, mirroring her as he considered her in that surprisingly perceptive way she had been told he had. “You know how to find him?”

“Finding him’s not the problem,” said Maria, still fighting of the weariness as she answered the implied question in Stark’s raised eyebrows. “He doesn’t respond well to our approaches.”

“I doubt I’ll be able to help with _that_.”

“I don’t want you to. Just keeping you informed.” Stark looked surprised by the honesty. Maria had learned long ago that a little candour could be incredibly effective when people were expecting its reverse. “Besides, we do have a little problem in that he can’t be officially working with SHIELD. Part of our agreement with Jotunheim is that we’d extradite him if we managed to detain him.”

“That’s a problem.”

“You don’t say.”

“So how exactly _are_ you planning to get him to help you?”

Maria smiled, thinly but still the most honest she’d managed in days. “I know someone who might be able to help.”

* * *

“Hill says you managed to grab the Tesseract,” said Natasha into the phone. “Guess that makes you the big hero.”

“Don’t think anyone comes out as much of a hero from that mess,” came Clint’s voice from the other end. “The director in a coma, both Coulson and Selvig compromised… And we have no idea where this Nebula is.”

“ _But_ we have the Tesseract. And Fury’s still alive. All things considered, it could have gone far worse.”

“See, this is the kind of optimism that makes me love our little chats.”

Natasha rolled her eyes, even though - or perhaps because - Clint couldn’t see her.

“Where are you off to now?” she asked, wondering whether he was allowed to answer.

Apparently, he was.

“Beirut.”

“What’s in Beirut?”

“Someone who might be able to help us find someone else who might be able to help us.” He moved on quickly after this cryptic response. “How about you? Picked up Banner?”

Natasha’s gaze flickered over to the man sitting on the other side of the jet, looking down at his lap as he fidgeted with his hands. A slightly hunched figure, so completely incongruous with the terrifying monster he could be. “Yes. We’re making a stop soon, part ways there. Apparently Hill thinks I might have to do some tough flying.”

“You rather than me? I’m hurt.”

Natasha snorted. “Well, clearly you’re needed elsewhere.” She leant back in her seat as she inspected a rather unfortunate bruise on her knuckle. “From one fun mission to the other.”

“You have a very curious definition of the word ‘fun’.”

Wasn’t that ever true. “I’ll see you soon, Clint.”

“You too, Nat. Make sure you don’t get hulked before layover.”

“Is that even a word?”

“It is now.”

She hung up, then read the new message Hill had sent her. After briefly collecting herself, she padded over to where Banner was sitting.

He looked up even as his chin dropped a little, eyes flicking around the jet before resting on her again. She let him have his space, coming to a stop a good two metres away from him.

“We’d like you to take a look at the data we have of the Tesseract. Right now, we’re trying to see whether there’s a way to hide its signal or even create some kind of a decoy. Would you mind taking a look?”

“What would you use it for?”

“To trick our opponent,” said Natasha.

A half-smile. “How very forward of you.”

“We’d prefer to stop this before anyone else gets hurt. This might be our best chance.”

Banner hesitated, then gave a quick nod. “I doubt I’ll be able to help.”

“Let’s see, shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally started! When I said I’d start posting this ‘September-ish’, I obviously meant second week of October. Updates for this are likely to be sluggish, due to my workload/illness/miscellaneous. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, please do leave comments and as ever check out my Tumblr at [@arimabat](https://arimabat.tumblr.com).


	2. 1.2

Nebula woke up.

She hadn’t really been sleeping anyway - more like a bleary haze ever since they had left the base. One hand grasping tightly at the sceptre, the other at whatever vehicle they were in. They had changed vehicles at some point - but even that wasn’t really clear in her memory.

The first thing she asked her new servant was what the hell he had shot her with.

“We developed it for frost giants and Asgardians.”

That _did_ make sense: she had heard a little of Terra’s recent dealings with other realms. Which was part of the reason why her father had come to believe Asgard wouldn’t be _dying_ to help this world any time soon.

“Who do you work for?”

“You,” came the prompt response. “But before that, SHIELD. Part of our work was in protecting this world from aliens.”

“How does the Tesseract fit into that?”

“We found it after we had to prevent an alien invasion. Considering its unprecedented energy resources, we hoped that we could use it to build weapons in the case of another invasion.”

Nebula nodded. Solid strategy, even if the Terrans had messed with something far beyond their understanding. She looked out of the window, at an endlessly winding road. Dull. The Terran vehicle clattered along it, painfully slow, with all the grace of an outrider. She had wasted too much time already on this unremarkable world. “I need to act fast. Get the Tesseract back to Father.”

“You’re still -“

“Immediately. Where is it now?”

“I don’t know.”

She craned her head to look at the scientist in the backseat. “Can you find it?”

“It emits a very specific energy signature that’s not… The thing is, there’s a faint trace that I doubt any of the SHIELD people have much familiarity with and that’s pretty much unique, but of course there’s not exactly many spectrometers out there that’d be designed to -”

“It was a yes or no question.”

A moment of hesitation. “I have a lab that’s not far from here, where we stored some stuff specific to Bifrost study. I’m fairly sure I could use that to pinpoint the exact location.”

So… a yes? She turned back to the agent. “We go there.”

“SHIELD knows about that little hideout. It’s funded by us. And if your colleagues are -“

“They’re not,” said the scientist. “They’re in DC. And presumably SHIELD is already calling them in to help.”

“Fine. But we shouldn’t act too hastily -“

“You’re a soldier. I know to respect that,” Nebula cut in, trying to lift the fog of weariness. “And you know this world. You can help me acquire the Tesseract. I need it fast.”

“I hope so,” said the man, all earnestness and conviction. She had chosen well. “But you shouldn’t take too great a risk along the way.”

“We need to act quickly,” she said for emphasis, not wanting to think how certain individuals might react to this delay. “While your employers are still off balance.”

“My _former_ employers,” said Coulson, and Nebula felt a little pleased despite herself. She had wondered sometimes how her father must feel to have such deep loyalty from his followers. Of course, this loyalty was coerced… But then, wasn’t that of her father’s followers too? That was simply the way of the universe.

Soon, she would be gone from here. And none of this would matter.

* * *

Maria looked down at the feed of the sleeping Fury and imagined the conversation she might have with him.

_So, sir, remember that helicarrier you’re so fond of? The one you had to wrangle the World Security Council into letting you have? Basically, I’m looking into turning it into a massive piece of flying bait. Genius, isn’t it?_

She very nearly laughed.

Her eyes wandered over to the news feed, skimming over the statement that had just been released to the world. _SHIELD is protecting dangerous technology from extraterrestial threats… using our best assets… taking precautions to make it impossible for the hostiles to pin us down…_

Not the best statement ever crafted, but it should serve as nice bait. And hopefully not too obvious for Coulson to smell a trap.

Coulson, who was now her enemy.

Her stomach twinged in vague complaint but it was too early to take another painkiller.

The phone lying on the table vibrated. She picked it up. Stark - informing her that he hadn’t been able to figure out how to hide the Tesseract. Great.

She sighed and absent-mindedly tugged at her ponytail, staring at the sleeping Fury before sending a short reply.

_Time to suit up. I’ll send you the location_.

She needed to decide where to send Banner - and now. Which would also have to be where they brought the Tesseract next. And Loki. And… her brother. Aaron, who had been scarred working for the organisation she now led and had gone AWOL with his friend Sahar back in New Mexico, very nearly costing her this job in the process.

As for Loki… Whatever the outcome was of this trap she’d need him. Going against every rule in the process as well as putting a civilian in danger. If anyone ever found out about this… She remembered her conversation with the psychologist she’d hired and talked to over the phone - Alleyne, her name was: bright, calm, recommended to her by her first choice and one of the few people she trusted - oh, she hadn’t reacted well to that plan. But not terribly either.

_You’re right that your woman’s prior contact with him could mean she might get an actual hearing from him. But at the same time, she’s associated with a terrible period of his life and he could be more likely to act violently towards her_.

Which Maria knew. And yet…

_Try not to get your brother’s best friend killed_ , a stern voice in her head told her.

This was pointless. She had to concentrate on the Tesseract. Her sleep-deprived mind mulled it over once more. It had to be far away, to a location Nebula wouldn’t know about. If Coulson was really under her control… It had to be something he didn’t expect. She rubbed her temples.

“It needs to be a SHIELD base,” she muttered to herself. They wouldn’t have the resources to protect it anywhere else. “Isolated… If we move far then what government would actually let us…” One of their closest allies. That’d have to be it, wouldn’t it? “Big base, friendly government.” With capabilities to contain the Hulk, if need be. That left her with two good options, as far as she could tell: Britain or Australia. They both fit the bill, so which one?

Coulson had been stationed in the Australian base for several months. He would know it well.

“Britain it is,” she said, nodding slightly at Fury. Might not have the same fancy glass prison the Helicarrier had, but plenty of concrete. She could do this. It’d be fine.

Time to talk to Romanoff.

“Have you dropped off Banner?”

“Yes. Where is he headed?”

“Same place you are, once you’ve taken the Tesseract for a little ride. A base in Scotland.”

“What ride is this?”

“Head to the Helicarrier; you’ll meet Rogers there. I need you to fly the jet out of there the moment Nebula arrives.”

“You’re setting a trap.”

“Yes.”

“And… using the Tesseract as bait.”

“Yes.”

“And Rogers is meant to take her down?”

“He’s not the only one, but yes.”

A pause. “Understood.”

“Good luck, Agent Romanoff.”

She hung up, leaving Maria to once again stare at her screens. She had to go now, make sure she could direct their defences once things got going. Would this work?

It had to. But if it didn’t… She had other plans too.

* * *

It was just after Maghrib when Sahar opened the door, wondering who would be calling uninvited at this time.

And her eyebrows flew up.

“Good evening, Miss Hajj.”

“Eh… Agent Barton. This is…”

“Unexpected?” The familiar face gave her a wide grin. “I don’t suppose I could come in?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

She stood aside and shut the door after Barton. His eyes travelled over the cramped interior as she walked past him again and leaned a little awkwardly against a wall.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“No thanks. I can’t stay long anyway.”

“And… What brings you to Beirut?”

Barton grinned, jamming his hands into his jacket pockets. He was wearing military attire - she noticed - but with a more casual jacket covering the dark outfit. Almost automatically, she tried to spot a weapon, but to no avail. Of course, he would have one somewhere.

“I’ve been sent to ask you for help.”

Her heart did a small flip. “Um…?” she got out. This was certainly _not_ where she thought this was going to go, if she had thought it was going to go anywhere in particular. But even so… “My help.”

“Yes. Or rather, we need Loki’s help, and we need someone who’ll convince him.”

Sahar had not thought it possible for her eyebrows to travel up further, but they were managing to do so. “You… Loki… what?”

“I realise this must all be a little strange to you,” said Barton. “Did you hear about the incident in New Mexico?”

“With the SHIELD facility?” asked Sahar, who made sure to not miss _any_ news when it came to SHIELD. “Yeah.”

“We’re in the middle of a bit of a situation.”

“Is it something to do with Asgard?”

“Not as far as I know.”

“But… alien?”

“Yes.”

Sahar blinked, surprised he was allowed to admit as much. “So… you think you need your local alien to help out?”

“Pretty much. Up for it?”

She knew the answer that was at the tip of the tongue but she wasn’t going to make it that easy. So she bit at her lip, deciding to buy herself a little more time. “Can’t you send one of your SHIELD agents?”

“We did,” said Barton evenly. “He’s developed a bad habit of stabbing them.”

Sahar stared at him. “Stabbing them.”

“Non-fatally, to be fair. Mostly. We get the sense he doesn’t want company.”

“Right. Have you considered you could just… y’know, take the hint?”

“Things are too serious.”

“You still haven’t told me what these _things_ are.”

“It’s classified. You’ll be briefed if you agree to talk to him.”

“You have given me literally no reason to do so.”

“What if I told you the fate of the world depended on it?”

“Does it?”

“It might.”

She frowned at the agent. “Why exactly d’you think he won’t just… eh… stab _me_?”

“Loki doesn’t seem to dislike you.”

Sahar blinked some more. She might be keen, but she wasn’t suicidal. “Wow. Gonna be honest here, I was kind of hoping for something a little more solid than that.”

“We just need him to hear us out. He’s fought for humans before.”

“That could have just been using a chance to give his brother a slip.”

“Do you think it was?”

“How would I know?” she asked, then reconsidered with a small sigh. “I don’t know. Maybe not entirely. But… But that doesn’t mean I think he has all these warm and fuzzy feelings for us. And I spoke to him like twice.” And he’d attacked her one of those times, she neglected to add.

“Right now, we can’t afford to start a war with him. But we can’t afford not to at least _try_ to reach him. And you seem like our best shot.”

Sahar snorted. “You guys _must_ be desperate.”

Barton didn’t respond except to give her a small smile.

“Fine. I’ll do it,” she said, wondering whether Barton or whoever had sent him had known that she would respond that way. “As long as you actually tell me what’s going on, so I have something to tell _him_ to distract him from stabbing me. Where are we going?”

Barton’s smile broadened into a grin. “Berlin. And… I realise this might make you change your mind,” he added, a hint of guilt in his eyes, “but if you do this, you’ll be off the books. SHIELD can’t ask Loki for help, not officially anyway. Which means that no one else in SHIELD can know about this. And also… it means you won’t have much backup if things go wrong.”

“So if he attacks me, I’m dead.”

“That’s definitely a possibility.”

“Brilliant,” she said, nodding to herself as her remaining sliver of common sense screamed at her. “Right. Let’s go.”

* * *

“Still no sign of him?” asked Thor for the millionth time.

“No,” said Heimdall. It was the only answer he had to offer.

“If I visited Midgard just once… would you have to tell my father?”

Heimdall’s brow furrowed, the response he had to give bringing him no pleasure. “I have to,” he said. “Otherwise, there is little doubt I’d be dismissed from my duties. Which is why I cannot let you go at all.”

Thor gazed out at the inky depths of space, looking quite forlorn. “We are not at war with Midgard. Any bonds of friendship would be beneficial…”

Whatever his opinions might be, Heimdall could not offer them.

“What are the scientists doing?” asked Thor. “Aaron and Erik and… Jane.”

“They are hard at work in order to understand our magic,” said Heimdall, who had been following the truly remarkable experiments of the mortals quite closely. “The devices they create come closer than I have ever seen to creating a Bifrost of their own.”

“It’s incredible,” said Thor, voice full of wonder.

“We did not reckon with the might of Midgard,” said Heimdall as he watched the humans scurry around. He could see two of the three scientists with ease, but one… He frowned.

Something was off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's.... um.... been a while. A ~lot~ of work is my main excuse. Do please leave comments, chat to me on Tumblr, etc. as this fic ever so gradually gets going. Thank you for reading :)


	3. 2.1

“Explain it in terms I can actually understand,” said Darcy, folding her arms as she looked at the two eager scientists. “Can you do that?”

“Yes,” said Jane, grinning and brimming over with enthusiasm. “Yes, yes we - we can totally do that. So. Basically, remember the Bifrost?”

“No, I’ve somehow managed to forget the big rainbow blast shooting down from the sky.”

Jane ignored that. “So that - that’s kind of like a bridge, right? What we’d call an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. _But_ it looks like it’s shooting down from the sky. Like it’s directly connecting Earth and Asgard, right?”

“But it’s not,” said Aaron, jumping in. He was fidgeting with his hands and currently resembled an excited seven year old who had been given too much sugar. “It just looks like that but what it’s actually doing is… is… Okay, how do you explain this?”

“Travelling through a fold in space and time. The beam - the beam, that’s what transports the actual matter caught within its area.”

“ _However_ , the actual Bifrost part is more like a portal.”

“Not really a portal.”

“So a fold. Like…”

“Like this,” said Jane, picking up a paper and a pencil. She folded the paper and jabbed it with the pencil so that it went through twice. “One side is Asgard, the other Earth. The pencil is the beam itself, tearing through the connection.”

“Yeah. So, hypothetically, you could use the Bifrost to travel anywhere. But only if there’s a fold.”

“Which is what the realms or whatever you want to call them have. That’s what the - the what do they call it? World tree?”

“Yggdrasil,” said Aaron smugly.

“Right. That’s what _that_ is.”

Darcy nodded, resisting the urge to yawn. “This all sounds kind of familiar.”

“But that’s not the cool part,” said Aaron. “The cool part is what _we’ve_ been able to do.”

“Exactly,” said Jane with the biggest grin imaginable. She put the paper and pencil back down again, all hurried movements and barely contained excitement. “Because what Aaron did, back when he was working for SHIELD, is use chemicals that originally came from Asgard to…”

“To make an explosion,” said Aaron, finishing where Jane had awkwardly broken off. He gestured at the scars on his face with a grin. “Remember?”

Darcy nodded.

“But what we figured is that he made something like the beam the Bifrost uses,” continued Jane. “The thing is, we didn’t know how to use that energy to… well, I guess it is kind of like a portal. Because it’s uncontrollable. Theoretically speaking, if you created something that could fire the beam into the sky, you could make it come up again anywhere of your choosing. Or it wouldn’t have to be at the sky, if you didn’t create something quite as powerful as the Asgardian portal.”

“There’s not a lot that can contain that energy,” said Aaron. “To oversimplify it” - Darcy sniffed - “what you need to do is create a controlled reaction with the Asgardian chemicals and then channel the energy you create in a direction of your choosing. But again, finding anything that can conduct that is pretty hard. It burns through any metal we have here on Earth.”

“I kind of feel like there’s another ‘but’ coming here,” said Darcy.

They both grinned manically at her.

“ _But_ ,” said Jane, “we happen to have a metal that _doesn’t_ come from Earth.”

Aaron reached into a drawer and procured a dagger, beaming at Darcy as he relished the big reveal.

Darcy stared at the dagger. It did look familiar…

“It’s the one Loki gave me!” said Aaron, looking very put out at this lackluster reaction. “Back in Tønsberg? Sahar and I both have one of them. But crucially, it’s Asgardian!”

“So… It can act as a… channeling thing?”

“Think of it as a circuit,” said Jane. “One end is our device, the other is a place of our choosing. The reaction is the power source to start it, flowing through the metal and concentrating energy into a focal point, blasting a small ray of light that then disappears and comes out at another location.”

“Your device? Have you actually made this thing?”

They nodded.

Darcy could not help but be impressed. “So this is what you’ve been up to while I was gone?”

“Not bad, is it?” said Aaron, looking very satisfied with himself.

“Can’t believe you saw the need to hire me, seeing you’ve been so successful on your lonesome.”

Jane shook her head. “Honestly, we would have gotten so much further if we weren’t so hopeless.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Besides, it’s way more fun when you’re around.”

“I’m more surprised you’re willing to put up with _us_ ,” said Aaron.

Darcy snorted. “A chance to skive off government funded scientists? As if I could refuse.”

* * *

The cold metal of a blade touched Sahar’s neck. She realised the alien was standing behind her.

“Please don’t kill me,” she said, more weakly than she had intended.

There was a moment’s pause, then the blade was removed. Sahar turned to face her attacker, uncomfortably aware of how her back was quite literally against the wall. Or the door, more accurately, but it was his apartment door which was presumably locked, so really only of limited use if she needed to get away. He stared at her for a moment and she stared back, hands held up a little in what she hoped was a non-threatening way, until something like recognition flickered in his eyes.

“You’re the woman…”

“Sahar. From New Mexico. I mean, not from there, but it’s where we met…” She trailed off, then raised her hand a little further in a half-wave. “Hey,” she finished lamely.

“Why are you here?”

Immediate threat defused, she stepped aside in what she hoped was a casual manner, taking in the sight of the former Asgardian prince, definitely familiar if still markedly changed by the two years. If they had crossed paths on the street, a part of her doubted she would have looked twice. He seemed more… ordinary. 

If it weren’t for the knife and the dangerous glitter in his eyes.

He considered her warily and then stepped forward, lightly pressing down the door handle and pressing open the door, gaze not leaving her all the while. Stepping aside, he motioned for her to enter. Which she did, not exactly thrilled at leaving her back unguarded. She stepped into a thoroughly ordinary flat that was barely bigger than her own. When the door was shut behind both of them, she turned to face him again.

“I’m here…” She coughed, using the opportunity to scramble for words that wouldn’t get her killed. She’d had a script going in, but it was a little tricky to remember. Honestly, the whole blade-to-throat thing hadn’t been an ideal start. _Wait in front of his apartment,_ Barton had said. _You’ll be fine_. Amazing plan, truly genius. “I’m here to ask for your help.”

“My help.”

“Yes.” She nodded. “There’s… well, there’s a potential alien invasion. Or a current one. An alien has arrived on Earth and is after a really dangerous object. She hasn’t managed to get it yet, but she’ll probably try again.”

“And who exactly has told you all this?”

This all felt like it was still very much leading to her early death, but she had to press on. “SHIELD.”

He raised his eyebrows slightly but apart from that didn’t reveal any emotions as she _tried_ to do the same. “They want my help.”

“Yes.”

“With what, exactly?”

“They’re… They think you might be able to figure out something about this alien. What she wants, how to stop her.”

“They want me to fight her?”

Sahar hesitated. “If it comes down to it, probably, yeah.”

“And why would I be inclined to help you?”

“Because you’ve spent your last two years on this world,” she said with a ton of false confidence. “Would you like it if it blew up?”

“I’m sure I’d manage.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Something approaching a smile flashed across his face, which was disconcerting. But he hadn’t stabbed her yet, which was decidedly good.

“Why not ask the protector of the Nine Realms for help?” he asked as dryly as was possible.

“Because we’re not on best of terms with Asgard. And because SHIELD doesn’t want them to take their cube.”

“Cube.”

She pulled out the device Barton gave her, and a second later a very cool hologram flickered above it of a slowly rotating blue cube.

Loki’s eyes widened. “The Tesseract.”

“That’s what SHIELD called it, yeah.”

He brought his hands together, running his fingers of one hand along the palm of his other. “So the humans have dug that up?” he asked quietly, almost as if to himself. Then, louder - “Let me guess. Part of SHIELD’s intentions for me involve trying to… conceal certain facts from the sight of Asgard’s gatekeeper.”

“I haven’t been told anything about that,” said Sahar, though thinking about it that did sound like a pretty reasonable assumption. “But this… this alien, she also has some kind of a weapon that can control people’s minds. You can imagine how freaked SHIELD is. I think at this point they’re calling in pretty much everyone they can think of.”

“You think?” asked Loki, sounding a tad confused. “Don’t you work for them?”

Now it was Sahar’s turn to widen her eyes and let out an involuntary little snort. “Sorry - It’s just… No, I don’t work for them. An agent just turned up at my doorstep and asked me to ask you… That kind of thing.”

He frowned. “Why you?”

“Because we’ve had… prior contact,” said Sahar, her brain helpfully reminding her of their last proper conversation, notable for how she had tried to be friendly and he had knocked her out and started an interplanetary war. “I guess. You haven’t responded all too well to SHIELD agents, from what I hear.”

Loki stared at her for a few moments as she did her best to meet his gaze evenly, then nodded again. “Fine. If I go with you, I imagine a SHIELD agent will give me a better understanding of what is happening?”

Sahar blinked. She had not expected convincing him would be this easy. “Eh… yes? Yes.”

“I won’t stab anyone, I promise,” he said, and she was disconcerted by the hint of humour in his voice.

She gave him a weak smile and took out the communicator to call Barton.

* * *

“Natasha Romanoff,” she said, extending her hand.

Rogers shook it. “Steve Rogers.”

 _I know_.

“So, ready to fight an alien?” she said in a half shout, the wind whistling around them as they headed for the indoors of the quickly ascending helicarrier.

“SHIELD certainly seems ready,” said Rogers, taking one last stunned look around at the massive flying base before opening the door for both of them.

Inside, it was quieter, in the familiar blank corridors of institutional efficiency and professionalism that could have been found in a million places on Earth. She grinned as she led him to the command centre.

“Must all be pretty weird for you.”

“It takes some adjustment. I thought I’d seen everything, but…”

“The world always finds a way to surprise you,” finished Natasha as they entered the command centre. SHIELD agents were bustling around, but not as many as one would expect. And all were clearly geared to evacuate at a moment’s notice. As she looked around at the splendour of Fury’s pet project, she couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that Hill was prepared to risk it all on the chance that they’d be able to take down Nebula. It was an impressive play in a high stakes game.

She really hoped it’d work.

“You know your brief?”

“Take down the alien, grab the sceptre,” said Rogers, even as his wide eyes travelled across the screens and what they could see of the sky and the agents who were all trying very hard not to stare at him. “And you’ll fly the Tesseract out?”

“The moment Nebula arrives,” said Natasha, who was still a little apprehensive of making herself the principal target of this new and uncertain threat. But she’d faced worse. “We’re not sure how precisely they’ll be able to track it, so we’re keeping it here” - she pointed at the case resting in the middle of the room - “right until we know hostiles are approaching.”

“And then… you’ll grab it and run for the jet?”

“Pretty much.”

“Sounds risky.”

The corners of her mouth twitched. “Most traps are.”

“You think it’ll work?” asked Rogers, who had folded his arms and was considering her intently.

 _Why do you care what I think_?

“I think we’ve got a good chance. If she really takes the bait, she’ll be caught off guard. She’s still new to this world, even if she’s gotten new friends. This might be our best shot.”

Rogers nodded, seeming to accept this.

Natasha looked him up and down, still trying to get a measure of the man. “Better suit up. Come on.”

* * *

Loki recognised him too, the pilot from the fight in Tønsberg - the skilled archer who had been able to take down frost giants with remarkable precision. He had given his name too, Loki thought - what had it been? Ah yes, Clint.

“Good afternoon, Loki,” said Clint with a grin.

Loki inclined his head, even as he carefully took in the cramped interior of the jet.

“You might not remember: we met in Tønsberg when -“

“I remember.”

“Right, then,” said Sahar, coming in after him. “So I’m meant to go to the base too?”

“If that’s fine with you,” said Clint, before clapping her lightly on the arm and giving her what was probably supposed to be an encouraging smile. They can’t have been sure she’d succeed in convincing Loki, yet she had gone along with it anyway. Had they told her what had happened with her precursors?

“And where exactly is this base?” asked Loki.

Clint sat back down in the pilot’s seat. “Scotland. Not far from here - loads of hills, kilts, somewhat questionable food choices…”

“I’m familiar with the concept,” said Loki a tad waspishly. “Is that where the Tesseract is too?”

“Not at the moment. If all goes well, it should be there soon enough.”

If _what_ goes well…? He wandered over to the front of the jet, leaning against the wall where Clint could still see him. Sahar took a seat behind them, apparently content to watching them silently. “And how exactly did SHIELD acquire the Tesseract?”

“Found it in the ice. You sound like you’re familiar with it.”

“I would be. Asgard brought it to Earth.”

Clint, who had been about to flick the levers to start the jet, gave him a sharp look. “Asgard…” He reached to his lapel and seemed to press something, presumably some form of communication device. “The Tesseract is Asgardian?”

“That doesn’t follow,” said Loki, smirking at the agent. “But it was in the Allfather’s possession and then was… deposited on Earth, if you will.”

“Did Asgard happen to consult any humans on that decision?” asked Sahar from the back. When Loki looked over to her, she shrugged. “Explosive cube that sometimes makes dangerous aliens appear doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d be keen to have around.”

“SHIELD seemed happy enough,” said Loki, who could make an educated guess about what the organisation had been trying to do with the Tesseract.

“And you’ll note they never asked anyone else either,” said Sahar wryly.

Clint pushed against a lever and the jet started rising. “You’re welcome to take that up with the director… or maybe not ‘welcome’, exactly… For now, how much can you tell us about the Tesseract?”

“It’s very old and very powerful. As I imagine SHIELD realised quickly enough, it consists of a remarkable supply of energy that can be used for _all sorts_ of interesting things.” Clint didn’t react, so Loki went on. “And yes, if correctly used it can form gateways between separate points in space.”

“Like the Bifrost?” asked the agent.

Loki’s brow furrowed. “Not quite. The Bifrost creates… I suppose you could think of it as a tunnel that folds space together. Whereas the Tesseract manipulates the very nature of space to form connections at the user’s discretion.”

“That does sound pretty impressive.”

“Quite. What bothers me, though…” Loki paused and tapped his fingers together, urging his mind to remember as much as it could about the Tesseract’s nature. “Whatever SHIELD did with it must have activated it in some way. But it doesn’t seem like… like a portal was opened at random. Which means something must have controlled the Tesseract from the _other_ end.”

“Like the sceptre.”

“The…” He tilted his head to one side. “This’d be the mind controlling weapon?”

Clint nodded. “Our hostile showed up with it, used it to shoot lots of blue light and then prodded people in the chest. It was… something blue passed over them, and into their eyes. And then they were working for her. Just like that.”

“And where were you in all this?”

“Taking advantage of a momentary distraction to get away with the Tesseract.”

“How heroic of you.”

Clint shot him a look as if trying to figure out how sincere the words were. But he shrugged as he adjusted the navigational settings. “Right now, a lot’s depending on that thing not blowing up again. It hasn’t, but… if it does, we could lose a lot.”

“What is SHIELD trying to do with it at the moment?”

“Use it as bait.”

Smart. They must be depending on this… this alien being able to find the Tesseract quickly. Maybe the humans wouldn’t be needing too much help after all.

He nodded, satisfied for now, and straightened before taking a seat opposite to Sahar, just about far enough from the agent that it would be difficult for him to hear them.

“And how exactly were you convinced to get involved in this?”

Sahar shrugged. “Fate of the world and all that.”

“Hmm. And you were informed what happened to your precursors?”

“You stabbed them.”

He inclined his head.

“But…” she added. “Stabbed them non-fatally.”

“Yes.”

“Any particular reason?”

“Somebody has to stay alive to pass on the message.”

“What message?”

“That I wish to be left alone,” said Loki, and then smiled, showing teeth. “I do admit that my patience was running thin by the time you showed up.”

A glimmer of some emotion passed across the woman’s face, before it was replaced by a familiar blankness. He could see why they would go to her in a crisis. “I take it you don’t get many visitors.”

“What, did you think I’d spend my time befriending the locals?”

She shrugged again. “Why not?”

He paused, taken aback and clearly showing it. Irritated, he said, “Perhaps I just didn’t want to draw attention to myself.”

She didn’t answer but gave him a sceptical look he didn’t like one bit.

* * *

“You’ve found it?” she asked Selvig.

The man nodded. “It worked. We have a location.”

Nebula felt a surge of emotion. Not elation or excitement or anything of the sort. Just… relief. Hopefully she could pick up the stupid cube and get off this miserable planet as quickly as possible.

“And we have our transport,” said Coulson, coming up next to her. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

“Yes,” said Nebula, thinking that if he asked again she might test how useful he’d be to her with only three limbs attached. “Tell me what I’m facing.”

“From what SHIELD has said publicly, I’m guessing they’re using the helicarrier. It makes sense - it’s Fury’s mobile command unit, built especially for emergencies such as this one.”

“And protected by more SHIELD agents, I assume.”

“Not necessarily. SHIELD will be looking to assemble the strongest assets it has available. Its own agents, like Romanoff, Barton - but also outsiders. Presumably the super soldier, Steve Rogers.”

Nebula tried to place the odd note to his tone. “Sounds like you admire him.”

“He was a legend for all of us, growing up. Everyone thought he’d died but then SHIELD found him in the ice along with the Tesseract.”

That was… interesting. “Super soldier?”

“They injected him with a serum back in the forties. It made him stronger, faster, more… everything. And because he was a hero before that, it made him more heroic still.”

Nebula raised her eyebrows even as she picked up the sceptre, resenting having to choose it over her more familiar shock sticks. “I hope you won’t have a problem in fighting him.”

“No,” said Coulson without hesitation. But there was something in his eyes, something that made her wonder whether he was quite as deeply under her control as he appeared to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um. Well. It's been...... a while.  
> Part of the reason is that the next bit involves a lengthy fight scene which I've just been putting off for ages, besides this fic has..... so many moving parts. But like, it's not dead. Just moving slowly.  
> Do leave a comment for that sweet serotonin rush that will hopefully make me semi-productive.
> 
> Edit: I am vaguely amused that I phrased the start of this note almost identically to the last one. Here's to the next one not being 'it's been umm a while' away.


End file.
